Automating a production line with robotic arms is a complex, demanding task that requires not only substantial resources but also a deep understanding of the automated processes and available technologies and tools. Expert integrators must consider factors such as placement, payload, and robot reach requirements to determine the feasibility of automation. Ideally, such considerations are based on a detailed digital simulation developed before any hardware is deployed. However, this process is often time-consuming and challenging. To simplify these processes, we introduce a much simpler method for the feasibility analysis of robotic arms' reachability, designed for non-experts. We implement this method through a mobile, sensing-based prototype tool. The two-step experimental evaluation included the expert user study results, which helped us identify the difficulty levels of various deployment scenarios and refine the initial prototype. The results of the subsequent quantitative study with 22 non-expert participants utilizing both scenarios indicate that users could complete both simple and complex feasibility analyses in under ten minutes, exhibiting similar cognitive loads and high engagement. Overall, the results suggest that the tool was well-received and rated as highly usable, thereby showing a new path for changing the ease of feasibility analysis for automation.

翻译：利用机械臂实现生产线自动化是一项复杂且要求严苛的任务，不仅需要投入大量资源，还需对自动化流程、可用技术及工具有深入理解。专家集成商必须综合考虑布局、负载及机器人可达范围等要求，以评估自动化的可行性。理想情况下，此类评估应基于硬件部署前开发的详细数字仿真。然而，该过程通常耗时且充满挑战。为简化这些流程，我们提出了一种面向非专家用户的、更为简化的机械臂可达性可行性分析方法。我们通过一款基于传感的移动端原型工具实现了该方法。包含专家用户研究结果的两阶段实验评估，帮助我们识别了不同部署场景的难度等级，并优化了初始原型。随后对22名非专家参与者开展的定量研究（涵盖两种场景）结果表明，用户能在十分钟内完成简单与复杂的可行性分析，且表现出相似的认知负荷和较高的参与度。总体而言，研究结果显示该工具获得良好评价，被评定为具有高可用性，从而为改变自动化可行性分析的便捷性开辟了新路径。